THE BATTERY

The Battery, designated a park in 1693, is the oldest public space in continuous use in New York City. Within its shoreline landscape from 1855 to 1890, Castle Garden served as America’s first immigration processing center. The transformations of The Battery and the Castle tell the history of New York and, by extension, the growth and development of our nation.

On your next trip to New York, do come to The Battery to experience a day in your ancestor’s life. Retrace their century old footsteps as they disembarked onto the waterfront of The Battery and entered the Castle’s original walls to be registered and welcomed onto American soil. Enjoy the Castle’s surroundings, New York’s beautiful birthplace park, The Battery. Visit www.thebattery.org to plan your trip.

The Battery Conservancy led the effort to digitize Castle Garden’s immigration records and to create Castlegarden.org. The website was inaugurated on August 1, 2005 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the opening of Castle Garden in 1855. It provides a searchable database, free for public use.

The Conservancy’s mission is to design, build, maintain and honor the history of The Battery, the 25-acre public park at the southern tip of Manhattan, in partnership with the City of New York’s Department of Parks and Recreation. Founded in 1994 to bring a new vision and focused resources to the park, the Conservancy has raised over $155M from private and public sources to reclaim this storied landscape from decades of neglect and dilapidation.